Why this matters
A site built without a plan becomes a dumping ground: a dozen half-finished pages and no clear path to contact you. Five pages cover what almost every visitor wants — what you do, whether you're credible, and how to reach you.
What "done" looks like
- A one-line purpose written for each page: Home, Services, About, Proof, Contact
- Each page has one primary action (call, book, buy, ask)
- You know what content is missing and who's producing it
- Navigation is drafted: five items, no dropdowns needed
How to do it
- Start with Home. Its job is routing: say who you help, then send visitors to Services or Contact.
- Write Services around problems. One section per service with a plain description, what's included, and a starting price or honest "from" range if you can publish one.
- Draft About for trust, not biography. Why you started, licenses and credentials, a real photo.
- Build Proof. Testimonials, before-and-after photos, portfolio pieces, reviews — whatever your trade actually produces.
- Design Contact for action. Phone, a short form, address with map, hours.
- Sketch each page on paper before touching the platform — headings and bullets are enough.
Common mistakes
- Writing About as a life story instead of an answer to "can I trust this person?"
- Hiding all prices behind "contact for quote" when a range would pre-qualify buyers
- Launching with a blog that dies after two posts
Real-world examples
- Google's search quality rater guidelines treat clear contact information as a trust signal when evaluating sites — a documented reason Contact can't be an afterthought.
- The common local-service visit pattern is Home to Services to Contact; proof pages showing real completed work consistently outperform generic claims.
From a founder's point of view
Five finished pages beat fifteen planned ones. Every page is either moving a stranger toward contacting the business or it's decoration — and decoration still has to be maintained.
Rule of thumb
If a stranger can't learn what you do, whether you're good, and how to reach you in three clicks, the plan isn't done.